Clare Cooper Marcus

Clare Cooper Marcus first attended the University of London where she graduated in 1955 with a bachelor’s degree in Cultural and Historical Geography. In 1958, Marcus received a master’s degree from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in Urban Geography and later finished her education with master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966 in City and Regional Planning. In 1969, Clare Cooper Marcus began teaching at the University of California, Berkeley in the department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and continued to teach there until 1994. Her teaching emphasized the social implications of open space design, user needs in high-density housing, and behavior in public open spaces. Throughout her career, Marcus has participated in consulting work specializing in the creation of healing environments.

The Clare Cooper Marcus collection is primarily comprised of course materials and student work from her time teaching at the University of California, Berkeley from 1969 to 1994 and research notes from her field studies at St. Francis Square (San Francisco, CA), Geneva Towers (San Francisco, CA), Easter Hill (Richmond, CA), and Eichler Towers (San Francisco, CA). This collection also includes detailed observational notes and data that either Marcus herself, or her students conducted that ranges from survey interviews of residential community members, drawings done by young school students, and photographs.